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Rebbe Nachman didn’t come to make us “more religious.” He came to make us more real.
Rav Shlomo Katz opens the “treasure chest” of Rebbe Nachman’s Torah — teachings that heal the inner storm, settle the mind (yishuv hadaas), and draw down peace and truth into our homes, our relationships, and our own hearts.
So we are learning L'ilui nishmat לוי בן יוסף בת פיגא בת ישראל, ישעיה שלום בן יצחק אייזיק, לוי יצחק בן ירוחם חנן זלמן and for the Refuah Shelema of our Hayalim דוד נתנאל בן איילה אהובה, טוב שמואל בן אביאן נאווה, אברהם יעקב בן דבורה פיגא. The week is sponsored by Nechama Binikon in honor of David Jerome's birthday. Okay, Boker tov. Huh? Mazal tov, Mazal tov.
Okay. You may be very confused as to why we're learning what we're learning today. And I think that it's Dafka, Dafka because of the time that we're this Meshugeneh, Meshugeneh time that we're in right now that it's Dafka an opportunity to learn certain things because of the concept of perspective which many of us are getting now. War does bring about perspective in life.
I think that it's very clear that in times of crisis, in times of uncertainty, you realize what you really have and what's really worth fighting for and you also realize what's not worth fighting for and what you don't really have. Now they'll write books about the time that we're in, they're going to write not just Prakim in the Tanakh vis-a-vis there will be for the next generation many you know tons of documentation that is describing what was the Jewish spirit like at a time when we were running in and out of bomb shelters, hearing booms every single day, children home, total uncertainty about what's going to be. There'll be a lot will be written about this Tkufah that's in that we're in right now, period that we're in right now. And I think that they'll also be speaking a lot about how perspective has shifted in the time that we're living in as well.
One of the things we've been doing in this series of Rebbi Nachman's Torah leading us to a place of peace and Yishuv hadaat and tranquility and all that has to do very much with Yishuv hadaat, settling of the mind, which may seem to be the last thing in the world to speak about in times like this. However, it's Dafka because the heart is wide open and we're noticing levels of Gvura that exists within us and our children that can't be explained yet because there are no words for it. As a friend of mine told me yesterday, הילדים שלנו הם דור של נינג'ות. Our children are a generation of ninjas.
You said that word? We were just no we were just talking about our kids like kids just unbelievable. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. It's unreal and yet it's so real.
Now this doesn't mean this this shouldn't take away the legitimacy of people's nerves and fears that are very valid when ballistic missiles are shot at you. That's when ballistic missiles are what? are shot at you and with cluster bombs and all this all this level of insanity is a it it means this you know the same thing however what we have an opportunity right now to do is to look at us and be like wow we could very legitimate we have more pages here let me pass these down. If we if the siren does come you know we'll go to the Mamad over here. It is Dafka an amazing amazing thing that we have a Chiyuv I would say almost an obligation to observe ourselves and realize did you hear that? just a siren just a warning oh she's not did you know that was going to happen? Yeah he just heard it on the side.
Just a warning just a warning in Yerushalayim? Can't they just make a soft siren? just for my nervous system. Everyone's got to do what they got to do. Let me go check on my kids. Is Rivka at the oh my God I think so but she has a car so she'll go home.
That's fine that's what I need to know. Yeah she'll probably go home. Thank you. Okay, Baruch Hashem.
The alarms are alarming. Can I just say? just my nervous system me too. I don't know how to shut off the baby dragon. If there's a siren we're going.
Yeah we'll go into the Mamad through there. Yeah. Nothing getting more real than this. This is is this your topic? It's actually to show you that you're actually sitting here and you're functioning and you're breathing when you just got a warning that there may be a ballistic missile shot at you.
Do you do you realize where we're at? I don't know if we're functioning, we're so tired. Sorry? I said we're so tired I don't know if we're functioning. We're- we're here. And if we have to go in a few seconds to the bomb shelter, we'll go.
That actually proves the whole point of this shiur and what we said up until now. You have to observe yourself and realize that in a state of such craziness, we have the ability to a certain extent of composure. Now, that's- that's a wild thing. It doesn't negate the need to go and find shelter when you need to find shelter.
It doesn't negate even if you're a little bit on shpilkes right now, especially parents with children. Uvevaday I happen to know where my children are now so I don't have to make the phone calls but these are- these are really crazy things. Now, that's why it's davka, davka a time now to- to- to stop and gain perspective, to gain perspective as to what are the things in life that usually give me so much anxiety that have nothing to do right now with my life. Remember there was a world without war? I know it's hard to remember these things but you know there was a period that there weren't sirens and we were probably more anxious about different things then than we are now inside.
We were probably more anxious then, probably, could be. Isn't this the idea of yishuv hadaat of Rebbi Nachman's idea? Of course, of course- oh, he emphasizes it but I would- I would think that it's brought down in different terminology by all the tzaddikim. And from a certain kind of existential circumstance, specific- Well, that's what we're going to be discussing. That's exactly what we're going to be discussing.
Now, there's two pages on your- on the page I gave up, I want you to look at the one that says שיחות הר"ן פ"ג. Pe Gimmel. This is from Rebbi Nachman's teachings, Pe Gimmel. Okay.
There should be a shmira on Klall Yisrael right now, as we're learning words of the tzaddik, there should be a shmira on Klall Yisrael. Beyishuv hadaat, it's שיחות הר"ן פ"ג.
ביישוב הדעת יכולים לסלק כל הפחדים והתאוות. Through the calming of the mind, a person can completely remove all fears and taivos he says, and lusts.
Be'inyan hayeirot- That's the siren. You could pause it, yeah. Okay, where were we? Where were we? Yeah, they just intercepted it right over the Kotel. Right over the Kotel? I just saw it, yeah, mashma.
Oh, we got a yishuv hadaat a land like a yishuv that we can go to, hadaat. There is- there's a place called Chabad Yishuv HaDaat. Yes. Yeah, the farm of- settling of the mind.
All right, let's do something that I saw from your husband yesterday, where he told everyone to just breathe for a second. If you say seven- I am home with the kids, I'm working from home, I have no idea what he's doing. Just have to take a deep breath. And it's really- I will say it's really yad Hashem, continuous revealed miracles that we're swimming in are just- Hashem give us the keilim to recognize Your hand and be a shmira over all of our friends and families be'ezrat Hashem yitbarach.
All of Klall Yisrael. But it's- it's really exactly why we chose to learn what we're learning today right now. That we're going to notice, like I said before, when we're not in this state- here, I have more- there are more pages. When we're not- if you could pass this down please, thanks.
When we're not in this state of very legitimate concern and anxiety as we just experienced this second, we live in much longer states of anxiety and fears over different things that right now mean absolutely nothing to us. And we must observe that because that's a- that's a fascinating concept. It's a fascinating concept. Each person in this room has some shtickel anxiety and stress going on in their life on a day-to-day basis that has nothing to do with what really could put a person into distress- into stress by having to run into a bomb shelter right now with hearing booms.
However, what's the avoda right now? So what are we- what are we- what are we here to internalize? What's the avoda of all this right now? It can't just be to get through it, there's something deeper. And that's what I want to extract from today's learning. So again, שיחות הר"ן פ"ג.
ביישוב הדעת יכולים לסלק Rebbe Nachman says, just to say his name is a consolation.
רבי נחמן בן פיגא זכותו יגן עלינו. Amen. Be'inyan hayiros v'hap'chadim she'adam mityare v'mitpached. Regarding fears, things that scare you, that people get scared from and make themselves scared from, mitpached.
על פי הרוב מכמה דברים או מבני אדם שאינם יכולים להזיק לו כלל. Quite often, things that cause us fear, anxiety, and stress are not people or things that can actually damage us at all. That's a klal. Most things that give us the anxiety and that cause deep anxiety is we're anxious over our anxiety, as we mentioned before.
But it's not that we're really scared that the things that we're fearful of are actually going to end up damaging us. Do you understand that line? That's a very important line. Zeh barur l'kulam? Everyone understands that? If not, we have to, we can't continue. Jenny, you get this? Yeah, I just don't know where it is.
There's two, it's the side that says שיחות הר"ן פ"ג. Okay. You mean damage in overall body, heart, mind, spirit? Mind and spirit, let's say. And sometimes even body as well, you know, physically as well.
That there are things in my life that pose for me to be a threat, thus causing me to stress, be anxious, and be fearful of when, in essence, Rebbe Nachman says, most of these things could never actually have the capability of ending up harming us. What ends up harming us? Our anxiety over the anxiety, generally speaking.
והדבר נראה שרק בסוף. It seems, when a person goes at the end of life, כשאדם נסתלק ושוכב על הארץ ורגליו אל הדלת, אז יהיה לו ישוב הדעת באמת, Rebbe Nachman says.
When does it usually, when, according to this way of living, right? When I'm thinking that people and things can actually harm me all the time. So a person like that, when will they actually have yishuv hadaas? When they're, when they're not in this, living anymore, and that means like, you know, they're laying on the ground, they're covered, you know, and then their feet are towards the door. That's terminology towards someone that's about to go to their Beis HaKvaros.
אז יהיה לו ישוב הדעת באמת.
Ah, then I'll have yishuv hadaas. When I don't have to think about Mas Hachnasa or Bituach and all these things. Then I'll have yishuv hadaas, right? But those are real things. Like if you have a bill for 100,000 shekel with Mas Hachnasa and you've no way to pay it, you're going to be anxious.
You could be, you could 100% be anxious. Rebbe Nachman's saying most people don't have bills of 100,000 shekel to Mas Hachnasa. I'd be surprised. But anyway.
I don't think so. Okay. I actually don't think so. I think that some people do.
Al pi rov, most people don't. They have other things. Rebbe Nachman's not saying there's never a reason to be anxious. He says על פי רוב מקרים, but most of the things that cause us anxiety and stress, most of the things in life, don't really have the capability to do what we think in our mind it'll end up doing to us.
And I'll tell you something. There was, I'm embarrassed to say this, but it's fine. There was a kid that, there was a kid that was two years older than me that lived on my street growing up in Ra'anana. And I had to pass by his house every single day to get to school.
And he was a few years older than me and he was a hothead. And I knew that he had something out against me, right? Every day, for like, probably two years, every time I walked by his house I always thought he was going to jump me, right? Now, when I look back at pictures, I'm like, I was so much bigger than this guy. I could have taken him out in a second. But in my mind, I drew a picture that this guy, I could be damaged by someone.
And afterwards I found out that he completely forgot about the whole thing either. But in my mind, for two years, I lived in a state of anxiety every morning as a teenager walking by this guy's house. We have all these things all the time. But al pi rov, most of the time these things can't end up really harming me.
It's stories that I built in my mind.
אז יהיה לו ישוב הדעת באמת.
ויסתכל על עצמו ויראה האמת שכל היראות והפחדים שהיה מתירא מאיזה בני אדם שעמדו כנגדו. At a certain point in life we have to look at a bunch of things that have caused us anxiety and stress.
היה הכל שטות והבל. It really was nothing, vanity, u'vechinam היה לו יראות ופחדים מהם כי מה יעשה לו אדם. But really I could look back and be like, "wow, so many things I was nervous about and stressful and caused me all types of all types of discomfort." Really, those weren't things that carried any weight. You know the Rabbi Nachman has another Torah about the yetzer hara, the yetzer hara walks around all the time and he says, "do you want this, you want this" and he closes his fist.
Right, and he says, "you want what's in here?" and you're thinking, "oh my god, it must be something, right?" And he gets you, entices you by showing you, "you can have what's this if you follow me this way, if you follow me this way." He says, but at a certain point I call out his bluff and I tell him, "open your hand," and there's nothing in there. So there are times in life like what we're saying about right now that we have a legitimate reason to get our heart rate being pumped up and running into a bomb shelter. This is not Corona that was insanity. This is a real war.
This is real, like these missiles can kill. They really can. They could damage tremendously. That, if your heart that's not a you're not crazy for being in fear for that.
But the perspective of life comes and says to you what about all those things that are that can't really damage me? How much weight does that put on me? And how much does that consume me? Now when can a person really do that, really like look at these things? Now. Why how could how how come that why is it that we're able to do this type of work now? Because something greater. Ba'avonosenu. Because of perspective.
What do you mean now? In the state of war. Oh. Legitimately, meaning you understand when we're saying we're pointing out legitimate fears because these things could damage us. And we're doing everything we can while Hashem is showing us something that we should have the keilim to understand to internalize what's going on over here.
Do you realize that what happened last night in Lebanon is not normal at all? It's not a norm, not meaning the outcome of what happened yesterday that at the end there were about two or three houses that were damaged from a barrage of over a hundred missiles, rockets coming from Lebanon. It's not normal, these things are not normal. What it needs to what we need to so there's like a like we say what's the avoda? So of course we could say the avoda is to davven more to have besuras to to see yad Hashem in everything, always. But on an internally like on a mental health level what we need to I mean it would be an amazing opportunity right now is to take into take everything into account, put in perspective and be like when I get out of here when this is done and be'ezras Hashem there'll be a a big, a tremendous, tremendous world of light on the other side of all of this be'ezras Hashem.
What do I do with myself? I'm the same person. Who's going to show up then? How am I going to look at the the things that cause me so much anxiety and stress then? Can I call it out? Can I remember what this was? If you want we'll take a clip from this and send it out when people need to remember what was it like when we got the siren, what did we look like? Okay, so now let's continue. Vechain le'inyan hataivos. This has to do with what I showed you with Rabbi Nachman and the closed hand.
Also regarding lusts, wrong, these bad desires.
כי אז יראה היטב אשר בחינם כלה בהבל ימיו ובשטותים ובלבולים כאלו ומי הכריח אותו לזה כי רק אז יראה האמת היטב היטב. We'll also see there's a certain point in life where we look back where we look back at certain like desires and lusts that we we got ourselves into. And then you sometimes have these moments in life and being like, "wow, that's so not who I want to be, it's so not my life anymore.
What was that all about? How did I get sucked into that?" It's the same it's the same theory where Rabbi Nachman is saying that there are things, moments in life where you simply are able to put things into perspective. Now chas veshalom we should never need war for this. But in Rabbi Nachman's world the methodology that really bases things on hisbodedus which brings the yishuv hadaas is supposed to be able to bring a person... and to that same place without the need of war, חס וחלילה.
We're just saying we're in the war already, let's make the best of it. But really, when I sit down and I do התבודדות every single day which I'm feeling more and more that it's the only only only advice I have for anybody. There's nothing else I... all of us are being asked questions all the time, at the end of the day it's can you sit down with yourself and הקדוש ברוך הוא and in your own words אשפוך לפניו שיחי pour out your heart, in your own words.
And then you realize what really irks you. Sometimes we're scared to say things because we think we give it power when we verbalize certain things, but the truth is that when you do it in the presence of השם, you realize oh my god, I said what I said and nothing happened. You actually weaken the thing that stands as that elephant in your brain and in your heart and a lot of fears dissolve. It's only because I get clarity, I get calmness of the mind, ישוב הדעת, my brain is sitting down, settling of the mind.
ובאמת יש בזה דברים בגו. Third paragraph.
כי יש דבר אצל האדם שאותו הדבר הוא מתיירא ומתפחד ממני הפחדים שמתפחד מהם. There's something, this may sound a little repetitive, it's because he's stressing a point.
There are certain things that by certain people we have this fear and when we have fear over the fear that we have ואף על פי שהוא יודע בדעתו בבירור חזק שאותו העניין שהוא מתפחד ממנו אינו יכול לעשות לו כלל אף על פי כן יש לו פחד גדול מאוד ממנו. This is fascinating.
רבי נחמן says sometimes we have so much fear over something that we actually know on a mind level that it can't damage me at all and yet I'm still taken into captivity by that fear. How could that be? If I know something can't hurt me, if I know that this thing that I'm so anxious over can't really damage me, then why is it that I'm still shackled? How could that be? What do you think, how could that be? How could I still be shackled by something that my mind knows isn't real? It's an excuse to not reach your potential.
Interesting. You're limiting yourself. Meaning I'd rather be stuck under that rock because if I acknowledge what my mind knows, it means that I have to now rise to the occasion and I'd much rather be in a victim consciousness. Yeah, okay.
There's חזק things over here, yes. It's very true. I think cause your body keeps the score and I think any aspect of this triggers something that... Correct, physiologically, that's very very important what you're saying.
I can know that in my mind that the thing that I was fearful of and caused me stress and anxiety can't really hurt me, but my body said sorry, I'm in the driver's seat. Meaning my physical the tick I developed חלילה or the irregular heartbeat whatever it is or because everything's so connected. You guys know about Doctor Sarno, right? There's so much work that he does there. I had a summer that I went really into his stuff.
All the mind-body correlations וכולי. So I can know something in my mind but my mind isn't in the driver's seat because I put my body and its physical תגובה reaction have now run the show and I have to rewire myself and put the body in the passenger seat and the mind that knows that this thing can't damage me in the driver's seat.
רבי נחמן'ס a master in that. Master in that.
Because that's what we need. And sometimes נעבעך it's a sad situation where it's a little bit too late for an immediate fix because you don't even realize that the physical manifestation of the triggering and the trauma has been driving you. That's what's driving you. And there's a fine line when you say victim consciousness, that's what they're feeling.
So... No no, but there's a huge this is a completely different answer. Your answer was answer number one. That's one thing.
No I know, but the reason they can't some people can't do what I said is because... Oh is because oh yes yes yes yes. And it doesn't fall into the same category of victim consciousness. Sorry I didn't understand you, you're right.
Because that's a fine line when some people are really traumatized and complex PTSD... correct... they're not able, they're not able, you could tell them to their face... Your thing is VC and they're like, I know you're right, but there's absolutely nothing I can do right now.
That's true. What I meant to say is that they're two separate units, but one of them, nachon, one of them, just so the people listening don't think it's a very good, I'm glad you brought that up, I'm not feeling like, oh, I'm just a victim. Chas v'shalom. Chas v'shalom.
Yeah. I think that's why they had all those cold dipping in the mikvahs and stuff like that was to shock the body on the physical level to be able to break through the barrier. Who are you talking about? The Chassidim, like earlier Chassidim? Yes. With cold plunges, you mean? What? The ice baths.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's to break the physical barrier. I one time went to the, one of the, I used to go a lot more often, the mayanot in Ein Gedi. The first one, not the one that Dov goes down to, but there's a first one on the right.
And it was a cold Friday. It was a cold Friday and I saw a guy there that I knew and I said to him, how do you do this? How do you go in there? 'Cause I need to remind myself that I always feel good afterwards, but until you get out, it takes a lot of gevura. So he said, I just remind myself, bring the donkey to the water. Over and over again, he said you just gotta bring the donkey to the water.
I said, what do you mean? He's like, anachnu chamorim. And a chamor needs to drink. The way that the chamor really gets satiated in this world is by dipping into this type of water. 'Cause it shocks the system.
And then I could function again in a holy and healthy way. Okay, so we're in the middle of this third paragraph. The second to bottom line: כמו שאנו רואים שנמצאים כמה בני אדם שהם פחדנים גדולים. We see that there are certain people, it's funny, this sounds very like kindergarten language, ata pachdan gadol, you're a big scaredy-cat, right?
שיש להם פחדים של שטות.
'Cause what he's referring to is that their fears are fears of nonsense.
והם בעצמם יודעים שזה הדבר אינו כלום ואף על פי כן הם מתפחדים מאוד. I wouldn't know now, based on what Rebbe Nachman said, which category he would put them into. Either the first one that has to do with, I'm in victim consciousness, or the category of I can't control the fact that even though I know, my mind says to me there's nothing to be scared of, I can't stop the fear because my body is running the show.
Not sure which one.
וכן אנו רואים כשמפחידים את האדם מאחוריו. I hate when people do this. I also hate when they honk while I'm, do you understand this inyan? Like when you're walking down the street, it's someone that you saw in the morning, you'll probably see them in a few hours, or maybe a day later, but they have to honk.
Right, 'cause honking on the street is a very soothing, no, it's a triggering thing. I'm just telling you, some of my friends know, I never, ever turn my head. Even if it's a quiet street and no one's there and someone drives right by me and honks, I never, ever turn my head. Ever.
And sometimes people will drive up slowly next to me and roll the window and say hi. I'm like, yeah, that's normal. Beep! Ma zeh shtuyot? For what? We know each other and it's okay if we don't see each other for a few hours. Why do you need to let me know that I'm seen? So I'm saying this 'cause וכן אנו רואים כשמפחידים את האדם מאחוריו, when you freak someone out from behind, right? Boo! Like those things, right? For what? For what?
שבאים עליו מאחוריו פתאום בבהלה בכל פחד.
Boo, right? Something like that.
אזי הוא תיכף מתפחד מאוד קודם שמתחיל הדבר להיכנס בדעתו כלל. Before you even have a chance to start thinking about what could be behind the curtain or behind you, your heart starts to, yeah, race.
שעדיין אינו יודע כלל שום דבר.
I don't know anything yet, but my physical response brings out stress.
כי באו עליו פתאום מאחוריו ואף על פי כן הוא מתפחד תיכף. But what's the result right away? Before you even know what's going on, there's pachad.
ומיד קודם שהתחיל הדעת לידע מענין הפחד.
And this is before the mind could start to trace where's the source, what happened over here?
ומאחר שעדיין לא התחיל דבר הפחד להיכנס בדעת כלל אם כן איך שייך להתפחד. But why are you getting so scared of something that you yourself... Can't make any sense of. That's what Rebbe Nachman is saying.
Why would you understand where Rebbe Nachman is going with this why would a person what part of me tells me that I should be in a state of fear if I myself can't even make sense of where the fear is coming from? The point he's making here is that pachat is not necessarily doesn't necessarily correlate with sense. It's not sense. It's not rational. Not rational.
Yeah. Intellect all these things meaning what we experienced twenty minutes ago is nothing to do with what he's talking about. Why? That siren is not the trigger necessarily. That's a warning.
We already know what this means. We know we have to find shelter. And even when we do find shelter, we're thinking of loved ones or we're thinking of chalila damage that can happen. That's normal.
If honestly, I don't have so much kavod for people that try to show that they're big gibborim when they don't go into bomb shelters when there's a siren. That doesn't turn me on. It doesn't teach me anything about resilience, about yiddishkeit, about anything like this. Nothing.
These are not inyanim that that I I other things teach me a lot about resilience like the fact that we live here and we go into bomb shelters teaches me much more about resilience than just showing the world hey I'm not I'm not caving to this. That's shtiut. That makes a lot of sense. He's talking about fears that we have that we feel that don't you don't even know why you feel it but it exists.
Those are the types of fears that he's speaking about. Yeah. How do you differentiate between fears and like wanting to control? I don't. Differentiate? No, it's the same thing because the more I try to control something the more that it actually fills me with fear when I realize I can't.
You can't. No like for example when you say fear for some reason the first thing that came to my head the child will remain nameless is the length of my child's skirts and I see it and I'm just like like it makes me fear like I want to pull the skirt down it drives me crazy I can't handle it. I don't think it makes you fear. Of what? Why would I care about her skirt? It's fearful.
She's not going to be religious. She's going to be wearing pants she's going you know there's a whole fear level or is it you know what I mean like growing up I wouldn't have cared because I wasn't raised that way. That's what I'm saying. Like how do you because I want to say a few things.
I know a lot of people that wear skirts and I don't really think that they have yirat shamayim and I know plenty of girls that wear pants that mamash stand in awe of Hashem. No but I'm just saying I'm linking my fear to this this thing that's stupid. It's like shtiut right? But how do you know I don't but that's why I'm saying I don't know if fear is the right word. That's not what this inyan is.
So that's what I'm saying. Is there a difference of what you want for your daughter? Yeah. How do you define the difference between okay I totally just sidetracked never mind. It's okay it's fine it's all safe in here no one's judging everyone no but it's like how do you know the difference between a real fear and the desire to control a situation? You know what I mean? Because a lot of our fears are really just we want things to be a certain way even if it's for the kavod of Hashem.
Nachon well that's why I said before that like the need to try to control very much drives a person to fear because they realize that they can't. You can't. This is mashehu acher that's happening before you even realize it's happening. The last thing he just said yeah.
The last thing he said is the is the shmentchik thing that thinks it's smart and loving to beep while you're walking down the street. Sorry for people that this is their minhag hamakom but I just never understood it. That type of fear you can't it's not rational because you don't you haven't figured out yet what's going on but you know that your body's responding in a certain way. Something sounds like what he's talking about actually like it's like the definition of what trauma is like if a person got into a car accident with a black car and any time the person sees a black car Nachon sure sure sure.
It just happens it pushes you back to the place in pictures regardless of what intellect tells us. Legamre now now the world tells you no no you have to embrace that fear and respect it and Rebbe Nachman says it's actually more helpful if you call it out for what it is. And what is it he call it? He calls it over here he just said the words he said it before it's a pachat of hevel it's a fear of vanity meaning. I know that that's what it makes you feel, but this black car have nothing to do with the ability to hurt you right now unless you choose to stand in front of it while it's driving down the street.
But in their mind, because of what they experienced, the trauma that went inside, what do you mean? This is the same exact entity that once hurt me. They can't differentiate between the two. That's a trauma. Hashem yerachem.
It's like they're frozen in time. Like maybe they're that seven-year-old child let's say that was in that car accident, like they're that 100%. Betach. Post-traumatic stress disorder.
Right, and I'll say I think also if one time you were afraid of something and it actually happened, then your brain can start to think like if I just stay in a constant state of anxiety, then I'm protecting myself, I'm just in everything's a source of exactly nachon, exactly nachon, I'm trying to be play defensive, but you realize like you just can't make you can't sustain that. Nachon. Constantly in fight mode. Yeah, yeah, it won't.
Who you said PTSD? PTSD. Right. And that's what I mean, after the Gulf War, every time I would hear any kind of noise that slightly resembled... Oh yeah, I remember.
I would jump a mile. The Shabbat horn? Do you know about the Shabbat horn on Fridays in Yerushalayim? Oh. That would make us jump. Oh, no.
The what? On Friday in Yerushalayim. Oh, oh, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. That one would make us jump. Do yeah, I was living...
were you here already? Of course, I in 82 I came. So right, so right, you came with Alstar, I remember. My brother's friend. Yeah.
We grew up together. We I remember now for years after the Gulf War, if we spent Shabbos in Yerushalayim and and we didn't that often but when we did and I heard the siren, we all freaked, the siren that tells you when Shabbos comes in. It was it was it freaked us out. I would I remember as a kid wondering how how could they still be doing this? Why would they still...
Huh? How could they be doing what? I think they do, no? They still do this? You would know. No, that's that sound they changed the sound on the ambulances. Yeah, the ambulances they changed that sound. No, but the thing that tells you when the Shabbos is coming...
You know that one. The Shabbos siren is more like the siren they used in the war. It doesn't sound like a siren. Ah, yafeh.
It used to. No, but I mean they must have changed it. The train sounds more like a... These are trauma, listen.
These are these are very if that's what I attribute that sound to, then of course I'm going to feel like that even though though even though in truth that pachad is hevel. You that's what he's saying. In the you can't don't tell this to someone that's stricken meaning it doesn't help someone you should know that when someone's really suffering from anxiety and you take them and be like you know that there's this is all nothing you're making this situation infinitely worse. That's not the shitta.
That doesn't that makes it worse because then you start to really think you're messed up. Like you knew you were messed up and now when someone is able to come to you and say you are scared over nothing then you start to be like but I know that I still am scared that must mean that I really am a meshugena. So it doesn't help. That's not the shitta.
No, it's like someone if you're anxious and someone says like no, don't worry. Oh! Oh! I'm good now. Shkoach, I was waiting for... yeah, yeah.
I should have known not to. Aren't there few places in Tanach though where where where the Avos are afraid and Hashem says... We have the most amazing amazing example of this by Yaakov Avinu. It says by Yaakov Avinu Vayira Vayetzer Lo, the lashon is is that when he the night before he met Esav, it says Vayira, he was scared, Vayetzer Lo.
Meaning what? He was scared that he noticed that he was scared. He wasn't scared of Esav. He he was scared in the beginning and then he's like oh-oh, this is not good. That's exact that's like the greatest example we have.
And Yaakov has to work through this before he comes to the klipa to meets Esav, and he he has to work through this. It was like an and it's amazing the Torah goes out of its way to point out to us that even Yaakov Avinu, bechira avos, Sabba Yisrael, the grandson of Avraham Avinu, the son of Yitzchak, was a human being that had clear and present danger in his life. Now, honestly, if the Torah would have just said Vayira, that he was fearful of meeting Esav, Esav's coming with how much? 400. And Chazal tell us that each of those 400 mifakedim had another 400, meaning he's coming with a massive army.
For Yaakov Avinu to be scared is legitimate. No, that sounds like us running into a bomb shelter. That makes sense. But by because it's Yaakov Avinu and he's...
It's come to teaching us bezrat Hashem the pnimiyut of emunah, so even the tzaddikim have to be in a place that even those things can't pose any threat or fear to them, and that's why he freaks out a little bit over the fact that he had fear. To me that's the greatest example of how this connects to it. Ach be'emet. Ach be'emet.
You see on the bottom, the fourth paragraph from the bottom, ach be'emet.
עיקר הפחד של האדם הוא שיש דבר אצל האדם שאותו הדבר הוא מתפחד. What really scares us, like for real, is when we sense fear in ourselves. That's really what brings us to feel inside fear.
It's not things from the outside. It's noticing that inside I have something that's not settled. That's the ikar hapachad.
וכן בעניין התאוות הוא גם כן כך ממש שאף על פי שהאדם יודע שהתאווה הזאת הוא שטות והבל אף על פי כן יש דבר אצל האדם שהוא מתאווה התאווה אף על פי שהאדם יודע שהוא הבל גמור.
For a mensch here, I'd give the obvious example. So I have to give a different example here. But what would be that it could just it should come from you. When you hear this word taiva, so what's one of the things you think of? Food? Is food a safe one? Like a certain taiva like—nothing's safe.
Sorry? I said nothing's safe. Ice cream. Do it. Let's go there.
Ice cream. Okay. So what's the taivas is that you know that besides a few moments of taste buds that you'll enjoy, not only does this not really give you simcha and consolation, L'hefech. It gives you—wait, but that's when you eat it linked to fear.
But if you eat it just because you enjoy it, that's a different thing. That means that yeah, but that's less taiva. I'm talking about things that for you, you understand this is mamash like a lust. But like having—no, my question is, is he linking indulging in your taivas to fear? He's explaining how—no, he's not linking.
He's explaining how a person can know that what they're running after is really nothing and yet they still run after it. Do you think the more you want it then once you have it you understand that it's nothing? Yeah, I mean to connect with what you said, like if I just really feel like an iced coffee so you go and you drink it and it's nice and it's fun and that's it. But if like you're craving it for five days because you're with your kids at home and you're going crazy, so once you finally have that iced coffee you're like okay this is what I was looking forward to this whole time. Or but there's also another link for the people who do for example stress eat.
So they have anxiety and instead of like taking their anxiety and saying it's nothing—but we're not also that's why I don't want to link. I'm not linking anxiety and fear and anxiety and taivas. This is fear and taivas, meaning it's two different things. Forget, I'm sorry, food's not working.
What would be another thing? What would be another—shopping? Shopping as a taiva? Yeah, browsing on the internet. Yeah, thing that you don't even need in your life and you're like you know it's like a regret. And you know but there's even a regret while you're doing it. And you know that what you're shopping for won't really fill any need, it's just it's a taiva.
But yet you can't not shop. I feel like scrolling's like that because you stay up scrolling and then you regret it because you're so tired the next day. That feels more like an addiction. It's different.
Yeah, but it's what Rabbi Nachman is showing us over here that there are things that our mind can know that it's like he says over here hevel gamur which means total vanity, total nothing. The mind can know that but the impulse overpowers the mind. It's possible. That's what he's saying over here.
It's possible. That's how it's likened to pachad. That the mind can know sometimes that this is nothing but my body's already the impulse of my body's reaction doesn't override the da'at that I may have. That's why you have to settle your da'at, yishuv hada'at.
You need to take the da'at that you know, settle it, dwell in it. And there are many different shitos for that obviously that Baruch Hashem the world is getting more and more access to. But once the mind is settled, then a lot of the pachadim that in the past would be driving the car, get out of the driver's seat. They go to the back...
maybe not even the passengers, maybe they're out of the car, I don't know, but they're not running the show. That's the bottom line. So the taivos end up not running the show and the pachad ends up not running the show, please God. That's a life of yishuv hadaas.
It doesn't mean life is perfect, but it just means that the things that usually cripple me stop crippling me. Still have challenges, right? Yeah, it strengthens you because you know you got over something and you can do it again. A hundred percent. But that's what I wanted to point out with us living in a state of war, that are running in and out of bomb shelters and functioning.
Look at yourself and be like, if I could do this, where it's legitimate fear, let me take koach from who I'm becoming right now to go to that person that still struggles with things that freak me out, that really... and I feel guilty saying this... are nothing in reality, they're something in your mind, but they're nothing in reality, and take koach from the person that I'm discovering while going through a war. And that's why davka I wanted to learn this and I didn't plan the sirens before.
But we need even if it didn't happen, we're living in it. We're all exhausted. Exhausted, especially if you have little kids. It's crazy.
And ואף על פי כן. Still. Look at us. It's the power of nature, histaglut.
It's also the danger. Histaglut means to adapt, adaptation, yeah. What was a method to settle your daas, like hisbodedus you were saying or? So I would say like this, for me personally speaking, the healthiest times in my life, healthiest, is when I'm doing hisbodedus every single day. Healthiest, more than anything else.
Val kein, second to bottom paragraph.
ועל כן בודאי אם האדם ישב עצמו היטב היטב בקל יוכל לסלק ממנו כל היראות והפחדים. If you settle yourself down thoroughly, with ease you'll be able to remove all the fears that you live with. V'chein kol hataivos.
And all the taivos. If you sit down with Hashem, you take your taiva and you realize Hashem already knows what your taivos are, so don't be embarrassed. You speak it out. You speak it out with Hashem.
The fear can be removed. The taiva also could be removed because it was spoken out through yishuv hadaat. We usually the impulse to work on to activate ourselves based on fear and taiva is because there's no yishuv hadaat in between. So I may have daat, but it's not meyushav.
You understand? I may have daat that I know that something is wrong, how could I still go ahead even if I know something's wrong? Because that which you know is not settled within you. It's not meyushav. It doesn't dwell in you. You know it, but that knowledge doesn't serve its purpose to be a factor in the end game.
It's just something you may know. But when I meyashev my daat, when I settle my mind, then it actually functions in a manner that prevents me from acting in a way that I really don't want to and it really guides my ratzon. How do you make a difference between, like there is in a way a healthy fear and a healthy taiva where it brings you forward in a... when it's fear so if you're not afraid of crossing the road of the street so it protects you in a way and also taiva like it makes you maybe move forward towards something? Well so I wouldn't call that a pachad and I wouldn't call that a taiva, there's different words for it.
Like what would we say, what would we substitute instead of the word pachad for the first one? Zehirus? Chochma? Zehirus, yeah. And the other one in taiva? Ratzon. It's semantics, but it's important. It's very important.
The all of the the entirety. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I could know something.
I could know many things. What relevance does it have to my life? A lot of the knowledge that I have, not so much. I want to bring it to the all of me. It's interesting that's why Moshe Rabbeinu on his on his last day of his life is Parshat Nitzavim is one of the parshiyot that we have in the end of the Torah.
And Moshe Rabbeinu is the way we we always learn it is that in the previous parsha before that is Parshat Ki Tavo we get all the curses. So there was a fear in Am Yisrael who would think that they're that they're capable of living a life of light if I have these curses in front of me. So Moshe Rabbeinu says, אתם נצבים היום כולכם, the all of you, that's the way Reb Shlomo used to explain this, the all look at you, you thought that you'd hear such things it would destroy you. No, no, no.
You're standing. The all of you are standing here. You're able. You're capable.
It's okay. It's okay. Alright, let's finish up. Again, על כן בודאי אם האדם יישב עצמו היטב היטב בקל יוכל לסלק ממנו כל היראות והפחדים וכן כל התאוות מאחר שיודע שבאמת אינם כלום רק שיש דבר אצלו שהוא מתיירא ומתאווה.
And also all the taivot. He knows that they're really nothing. He knows they're nothing. At a certain point the yishuv hadaat you know it's nothing.
It's just that you have something by you that you that you have fear and and a taivah for but those but it's not really you. And that can only come through yishuv hadaat.
על כן בקל יוכל לשבר ולסלק הכל. So Rabbi Nachman says, why? Really? I could really I could really get through these things? I could really remove fear? Is that something I could actually really do? And a taivah? He says, yeah.
Why?
כי האדם הוא בעל בחירה, which is usually the last thing a person in anxiety feels they have, or a person that's stricken with a lust think they have. But that's not emet. The emet is is that you you are a ba'al bekhirah. You are.
Now again, don't someone that's in a panic attack don't ever tell them you have a choice right now to snap out of it. That's not what we're talking about.
ובקל יוכל להרגיל דעתו לסלק ממנו אותו הדבר שממנו באים כל הפחדים שלו וכל התאוות כנזכר לעיל. And when you attune yourself with the method of yishuv hadaat you reminded and you strengthen yourself that it's possible to not live a life stricken with stress and anxiety and fear and taivot and all of these things.
It's possible. And therefore Rabbi Nachman says like we'll see in other places yishuv hadaat and having that being one of the things that is a goal for you in your life is not a simple thing. It's a very important thing. Some would say that without that you can't really say that you believe in Hashem.
You can't say that you believe in the Torah. Some would say without yishuv hadaat you can't say that you even know how to love or anything because at any given second something can come and distract you and and hijack you. But with yishuv hadaat all the arrows of safek that are shot at me I'm like I see you. I see you.
But you just don't have dominion over me. I'm a ba'al bekhirah. I've chosen to not live like this. A different world going on.
And that's why I go back to hitbodedut because and even though it's hard, it's not easy doing hitbodedut, but it it seems to me that that's like the the strongest weapon through which one can can claim and really implement yishuv hadaat. So I know there's a few hands up but I'm sorry. I'm my mom's waiting for me at my house. I have to run back.
Yashar koach for coming out today. Be'emet yashar koach. I wasn't sure if we were going to do a shiur because I don't want to put people in in difficult situations but ashreinu and hopefully ashreikhem and hopefully be'ezrat hashem we'll we'll get back to more learning next week.